Odin (God of War)
Odin is the unseen overacrhing antagonist in the 2018 God of War videogame, and is based on the mythical Norse figure of the same name. Similar to many of the Greek mythological figures from the same franchise, he is a far more sinister, barbaric, and cruel figure than his classic myth counterpart. He is overall the Bigger Bad and main antagonist in the Norse Era of God of War, replacing Zeus. Though he never appeared physically in the game, he was mentioned and referenced many times by various characters like Atreus, Freya, and Mimir as a cruel, barbaric, power-hungry and megalomaniacal deity and the one who responsible for many suffering in the 9 realms. History The Murder of Ymir and the Creation of Midgard Odin was a descendant of the primordial Jötunn Ymir, the progenitor of all life. However, due to his power-hungry nature he felt that he and his brethren the Aesir are the ones who should be the supreme rulers of the nine realms. He along with his brothers Vili and Vé stood up against their creator and succeeded in killing Ymir and anyone else who stood in their path including almost every Jötunn (with the exceptions of Bergelmir and his wife). After claiming his first victims, he took the place as the "Allfather" and began to create the realm of Midgard from Ymir's corpse together with his brothers. As the Allfather After killing Ymir and cementing his rule as the Allfather, Odin at some point would go to create Asgard, and began to expand his family by marrying various women, hoping to gain powerful sons. He got Týr from an unnamed wife, Thor from the giantess Fjörgyn, and many more. But at some points later Fjörgyn died from an unspecified cause leaving Odin heartbroken and felt lonely for many years. Imprisoning Mimir As Mimir's attempted betrayal toward Odin, the Allfather has imprisoned his adviser to a tree near the gateway of the 9 realms. He even took Mimir's left jeweled eye but disallowed anyone to harm him. While having Mimir's left eye, Odin searched for Brok and Sindri to build a statue of Thor with hidden compartment and forced to build the statue even though they declined. Odin's Destiny According to Mimir, Odin's destiny is to die along with Fenrir during their fight for Ragnarok. However, Odin attempted to change his fate which makes him paranoid. Villains in the Family *Ymir (Great-grandfather) † *Búri (Grandfather) *Borr (Father) *Vili (Brother) *Vé (Brother) *Tyr's mother (Wife) *Fjörgyn (wife) † *Freya (Ex-wife) *Týr (Son) *Thor (Son) *Baldur (Son) † *Sif (Daughter-in-law) *Magni (Grandson) † *Modi (Grandson)† *Thrud (Granddaughter) Appearance While he never appeared in the game, some murals in the Lost Page of Norse Myth describes him as an old man with a long beard and one eye. He wears a wide brimmed hat and carrying his spear Gungnir. Personality Odin is a cruel, heartless, sadistic and barbaric God, as proven by his having tortured Mimir and took his left eye to hidden within the Statue of Thor during his imprisonment every day. He ordered his son Thor to commit genocide against the giants for suspecting them being the ones behind Ragnarök, and he also betrayed his own great grandfather, the primordial Jötunn Ymir, at the beginning of all things under the self-righteous belief that he and the Aesir were bringing order to the realms. In reality, he and his brethren believed that they were superior and deserved to be as such. Odin is also manipulative when he "befriended" with the Jötunn seeress, Gróa only to kill her and steal her library and the prophecy about Ragnarök. He also manipulated Baldur that following Kratos and Atreus to Jötunheim would bring his cure for his immortality curse that Freya place on him assumed to be a lie. According to Mimir, Odin is extremely paranoid toward anything that he considered a threat to his rule and the Aesir, similar to Zeus in the original trilogy, this included the Jötnar, the Vanir, and even his own son, Tyr. Mimir also stated that Odin is extremely clever, almost as clever as Odin believes himself to be, as he was able to figure out that Kratos and Atreus had an important role in the upcoming Ragnarök, possibly due to prophecy of Groa. It is also implied that he has an intense fear of Kratos as well, as he know nothing about him except for the fact that he's extremely powerful and having fought and killed one of his son, Baldur and his two grandsons, Magni and Modi in battle. Powers and Abilities Odin, as the king of the Aesir Gods, is extremely powerful, the most powerful among his kind. *'Immortality': As a God, Odin is immortal, having lived for millenia. Only divine weapons, other Gods, or extremely powerful beings like Fenrir and Surtr can harm or even kill him. *'Superhuman Strength': It is presumed that Odin have a tremendous amounts of superhuman strength as the King of Aesir Gods. It's believed that his strength far surpassed his sons like Baldur and Tyr. It is even possible that his strength also rivals and/or surpasses his strongest son Thor whom credited as the physically strongest Norse God. The only known beings to surpass his strength are Starkaðr, Surtr, and the colossal wolf Fenrir. *'Superhuman Durability:' Odin must be extremely durable as he was able to survive a clash with Ymir, the first being in existence and the most powerful of the Frost Giants. During Ragnarok Odin will also survive a battle against Surtr, Ymir's brother and the strongest Fire Giant. However, his durability is limited, as Mimir stated, Odin would not survive for long in the coldness of Helheim, the Norse Realm of the Dead, and during Ragnarok will be ultimately devoured by Fenrir. *'Master Combatant': As one of the Norse Gods of war beside his son Tyr, he presumably excel in all forms of offensive and defensive combat abilities, armed and unarmed, having forged in centuries worth of battle training and experience. *'Elemental Manipulation': He presumably possesses this ability, given his kind affinities with the forces of nature, like his sons Baldur who possesses Photokinesis and Thor who possesses Electrokinesis. *'Magical Prowess': Odin is a very powerful and skilled sorcerer, being the only one of his kind to use magic. He mastered many forms of magic including the Vanir's magic like old magic and the art of Seiðr, from his former wife Freya, a highly efficient and experienced sorceress in her own rights. He's able to cast various powerful curse, enchanting Freya to never leave Midgard or harm others. The spell was too much for Freya to handle despite her own highly stated Vanir abilities. *'Summoning': As the Raven God, Odin is able to summon icy ravens to observe and gather information from across the realms. *'Nigh Omniscience': Odin is highly intelligent and clever, as even Mimir, the smartest being alive in all the Nine Realms, acknowledged his cleverness, saying that he is almost as clever as he believes himself to be. From having heard the prophecy of Ragnarok, he was able to figure out that Kratos and Atreus will play a very important part in it. *'Authority: '''as the ruler of the Norse gods Odin is an supreme monarch who is obeyed without question by many across his realms of influence, thus even without facing others directly he can command entire armies to do his will. Trivia *As the king of most of the Norse Gods, Odin is the Norse equivalent to Zeus who also the king of the Gods in his own realm. Both of them shares many similarities: **Both are kings of their own realms and they ruled their respective domains with iron fist. **Both are extremely paranoid toward anything that they considered a threat to their reign, even their own sons. ***Odin is much like Zeus and Cronos, both are paranoid toward anything that they considered a threat to their reign even their own sons. Odin killed Tyr after he suspected him plotting with the giants to overthrow him, while Zeus killed Kratos out of fear of The Marked Warrior prophecy, and Cronos tried to consume his own sons in fear of a prophecy. The difference however was Týr never thought of overthrowing Odin and only prevented him from accessing Jötunheim, whereas Kratos had intentions of vengeance against Zeus for killing him and previously torturing his mother and brother and for betraying him. **Both betrayed their own progenitors in a cruel way. Zeus imprisoned almost every Titans for eternity because of his desire to rule over the mortal world, while Odin killed his own great grandfather Ymir and almost his every Jötnar descendants under a self righteous belief that he and his brethren the Aesir are superior than every race in the 9 Realms and deserved to be such. **Both imprisoned and tortured their former allies cruelly after they committed a little disloyalty towards them. Prometheus who was sentenced by Zeus to have his liver eaten by a giant bird for eternity after he gave the mortals the fire of Olympus and Mimir who was bound to a tree and tortured everyday for 109 years by Odin after he tried to convince him to stop his cruel campaign against the Giants. **Both destined to die at Kratos' and his families' hands. Zeus was destined to die at the hands of the Marked Warrior who is Kratos himself, while Odin is destined to die at the jaw of Fenrir who biologically is the grandson of Kratos. **Both requested one of their children to kill powerful beings. Odin commanded Thor to kill the Jotnar, while Zeus ordered Kratos to kill Ares. **Both are afraid of Kratos, while Zeus was afraid of him because he was the one destined to destroy the Gods, the Greek Pantheon and his killer, trying everything on his power to stop him and put and end to the circle of patricide only to be killed by him; Odin of the other hand, he is afraid of him because of his actions involving Ragnarok, accelerating it's coming because of Baldur's death, killing also his two grandsons Magni and Modi, who were prophecied to survive even after Ragnarök and his important role for his own demise, although is unknown how he will be part of it *In nearly all the murals Odin appears in, he is riding his mythological mount, Sleipnir. This is odd, seeing as Sleipnir in the Norse Mythos, is the offspring of Loki and Svadilfari who was the stallion who helped the disguised Jötunn build the walls of Asgard. **Despite being Loki in this universe, it's unlikely that Atreus is the mother of Sleipnir, seeing as the horse was alive thousands of years before even the World Serpent's first appearance, being with Odin when he and his brothers slew Ymir **Another piece to support this claim is that in the ''Prose Edda, Loki distracted Svadifari from his task of helping the builder complete the wall in time by taking the form of a mare and the intercourse that followed produced Sleipnir. In the God of War universe however, Hrimthur was able to complete the wall in time and gain an audience with Freya. *In an ironic twist of fate, Odin's efforts to prevent Ragnarok and his death from occurring could be argued to be the very reason to it, as this led many inhabitants in the 9 realms to be very hateful toward him and his brethren including the Vanirs, the wolf Fenrir, and the giants. *Odin's efforts to learn more about Ragnarok and control it only caused him to lose more control of it at the same time. Odin's interferences altered Magni and Modi's fate from surviving Ragnarok to dying before it begins, likewise, Odin's interference also caused Baldur to die earlier than expected and cause the beginning of Ragnarok 100 years earlier than predicted. The new tapestry indicates that Odin changed the series of events by nearly committing a Jotunn genocide, which caused the surviving Jotnar to receive a new prophecy about a Jotunn who'd avenge the Jotnar by starting Ragnarok. In brief, Ragnarok was always going to happen despite Odin's efforts. *Despite his hatred of the Jötnar, and they him, one of Odin's great loves was the Giantess Fjörgyn, who bore him a son, Thor. In addition, before or after her, Odin sought the affections of Skaði, Queen of the Hunt. *As of the events of God of War (2018), Odin is responsible for the desolation of five of the nine realms, those being Midgard (through his corruption of the Valkyries), Niflheim (By intervening in Ivaldi's creations), Asgard and Vanaheim (through the Aesir-Vanir war) and Jotunheim (through Thor's genocidal campaign). 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